The best laid plans of mice and men…

Entries Tagged as 'War'

These are, of course, the words used by FDR in seeking a declaration of war against the Japanese…

There’s a great deal of controversy (still) over how much the government new about the planned attack on Pearl Harbor and why they did so little before it to prevent or reduce the devastation. I have included a link to the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund for those of you inclined to help support the renovation of the USS Arizona Memorial’s Museum & Visitor Center.

But on this date of remembrance I feel it’s important to consider the United States involvement in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the first time the United States invaded sovereign nations without having been attacked first.

Where are the weapons of mass destruction Mr Bush?

A former president was impeached for lying about having oral sex in the White House; and act which put no one’s life at risk… yet Mr Bush wasn’t even censured for having lied to the American people and not only putting many Americans at risk, but having many of America’s young return home in body bags.

It is an unfortunately reality that military force may have to be used as a last resort; but when a president open lies and distorts facts to make America the aggressor and uses events to tear away the freedoms that Americans have fought long and hard to win… that is a sign that we are losing, not winning.

On this day we remember… let’s remember recent history as well, and cry out to return America to the proud and the free — to undo the tyranny of the Bush administration and show the world that Americans can and will lead the way to a more prosperous time.

DEMAND YOUR FREEDOM BACK — NOW!

Originally posted 2008-12-07 12:00:58.

Tags: Politics by rogerComments Off on A date which will live in infamy

Guess what; George W Bush lied to the American people as well as the Congress…

But that’s old news, right?

Eliza Manningham-Buller, director of the MI5 (British Intelligence Agency) between 2002 and 2007, stated during a British probe into the war that British and U.S. intelligence had no credible evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States before the 2003 Iraq invasion.

She further stated…

By focusing on Iraq we reduced the focus on the al-Qaida threat in Afghanistan. I think that was a long-term, major and strategic problem

Manningham-Buller, now a member of the House of Lords, further pointed out that…

Our involvement in Iraq radicalized, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people – not a whole generation, a few among a generation – who saw our involvement in Iraq, on top of our involvement in Afghanistan as being an attack on Islam.

and

Arguably we gave Osama bin Laden his Iraqi jihad, so that he was able to move into Iraq in a way that he was not before.

So it would seem that not only have George W Bush’s lies cost the lives of many Americans, greatly burdened American tax payers, and cast America in an increasingly militant and totalitarian light in the world; but may well have actually aided the terrorists in achieving their goals of destabilizing the Middle East (and the world).

Clinton was impeached for lying about getting a blow job in the Oval Office; while the Congress ignored the lies Bush told them that got Americans killed (and profited himself, his “family”, and his “friends”).

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is blasting Julian Assange for the release last week of some 76,000 documents his WikiLeaks site obtained from an informant relating to the “killing of thousands of children and adults” in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mr Gates said in a Pentagon news conference:

Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is, they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family,

Mr Assange stated:

Secretary Gates could have used his time, as other nations have done, to announce a broad inquiry into these killings. He could have announced specific criminal investigations into the deaths we have exposed. He could have announced a panel to hear the heartfelt dissent of U.S. soldiers, who know this war from the ground. He could have apologized to the Afghani people.

But he did none of these things. He decided to treat these issues and the countries affected by them with contempt. Instead of explaining how he would address these issues, he decided to announce how he would suppress them.

This behavior is unacceptable. We will not be suppressed. We will continue to expose abuses by this administration and others.

If in fact the US military is responsible for the types of conduct alleged by Mr Assange, and the Joint Chiefs and Department of Defense have knowledge of this conduct (or actually condoned or ordered it) I can certainly understand why Mr Gates would have made such remarks — and the fact that no investigation into this matter has been launched by the US would seem to indicate (once again) that the US military plays a much different game than they publicize or propagandize.

It’s clear to see why our government keeps secrets from it’s citizens — the question really is how much more have they not disclosed?

On 6 August 1945 the age of atomic death was begun when the United States dropped a uranium-235 atomic weapon named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima Japan at 8:15 am local time from the infamous B-29 bomber the Enola Gay.

The US was the first, and remains the only country to ever use nuclear weapons against an enemy (in fact the US has used nuclear weapons twice; on 9 August 1945 the US dropped a plutonium bomb named “Fat Man” on Nagasaki at 11:02 am local time, the primary target Kokura was spared because haze made targeting issues — the delay to the second bombing was due only to issues with plutonium production, not any consideration for giving the Japanese an opportunity to surrunder).

This year is the 66th anniversary; and while it might be a horrific memory to most all the world, the few survivors who remain can speak first hand of the horrors of nuclear war.

We have a number of holidays celebrating wars and those who’ve fallen fighting them; perhaps it’s time we have an international holiday to celebrate the hope for a lasting peace.